BUS - Random Thoughts Thread

[BM5 via Woodhaven]

5 minutes ago, Lil 57 said:

So the last 3 Queens bound Q32 buses of the day are all bunched up. SMH.

The traffic caused by whatever  train work is taking place is the main culprit. It causes even more traffic than usual on the Queensboro Bridge.

[JeremiahC99]

8 hours ago, WestFarms36 said:

We were very proud that 9505 came into service, now less than a week its already in a crash.

And to think that the Allison vs BAE competition was about to begin. Looks like the hybrid bus bloodbath will have to wait.

[Lil 57]

Are buses allowed to drive without licence plates? 4003 has no rear license plate. 

[Orion6025]

4 hours ago, Lil 57 said:

Are buses allowed to drive without licence plates? 4003 has no rear license plate. 

Freshly delivered buses run around without rear plates and only temp plates on the front.

Not sure why 4003 would be missing the rear plate though..

[mine248]

34 minutes ago, Orion6025 said:

Freshly delivered buses run around without rear plates and only temp plates on the front.

Not sure why 4003 would be missing the rear plate though..

Same with 2882

[danielhg121]

7812 had it’s back panel open at Eastchester Rd and Allerton Ave, presumably broke down, prob gonna be scrapped

[Lawrence St]

Out of curiosity, how many buses have caught fire?

[mine248]

5 minutes ago, Lawrence St said:

Out of curiosity, how many buses have caught fire?

1205 definitely caught on fire in some extent. There were some RTSes that caught on fire (1 shortly after delivery and several at the LGA Depot due to a CNG explosion). 

[Lawrence St]

4 minutes ago, mine248 said:

1205 definitely caught on fire in some extent. There were some RTSes that caught on fire (1 shortly after delivery and several at the LGA Depot due to a CNG explosion). 

I'm never riding CNG buses again, why would you do this to me lmfao

[mine248]

26 minutes ago, Lawrence St said:

I'm never riding CNG buses again, why would you do this to me lmfao

Let me reword that part. There was construction work and gas plumbing removal work being done, and since they occurred at close proximity, the electrical sparks caused the explosion to cause the fire. It’s like regular gas—mix gas and sparks, and an ugly situation arises. 

[Future ENY OP]

Some key weekend observations:

Took a quick trip to the Nations Capital (WMATA) territory and took in some observations:

By far the best New Flyer fleet configuration right behind the .

As far as the transportation itself, that's another story.

Their XD40's and XD60's have white signage. (I know the Q70 has white signage) However, I'd like to see the make use of the white signage on all its buses.

WMATA taking a page from San Fran with Driver side wraps on their XD40's and XD60's and their rear billboards cover the whole entire back of the bus. They finally retired the Orion V's and no full wrap buses on the newer models. I guess Philadelphia holds the title of full bus wraps.

Coming back to New York City:  Seen a conga line of Staten Island buses on the VNB heading to respective depots after working the shuttle. An SIM bus deading to Tottenville to begin service to Manhattan. Brooklyn Division working various shuttles

[Orion6025]

46 minutes ago, Future ENY OP said:

However, I'd like to see the make use of the white signage on all its buses.

Is there any reason you think white is better than orange (Or that weird yellow that the LFSA with the new font have)? Frankly I feel all colors are easily visible at night and during the day time.

48 minutes ago, Future ENY OP said:

Seen a conga line of Staten Island buses on the VNB heading to respective depots after working the shuttle.

LOL. I love how they'll travel in like little pods of buses.

3 hours ago, Lawrence St said:

Out of curiosity, how many buses have caught fire?

2755, numerous RTS have caught on fire. Besides Phoenix referenced above, there are a few 1998-1999s that caught fire (As recently as last year I think a 497X JA unit caught fire). An MV 637X caught fire also earlier this year though I'm not sure if it ever returned to service, a 4000 SI NG was reported as catching fire on facebook recently I think, 5719 I think caught fire by GCT last summer and there was at least one other D60 in the Bronx that caught fire recently. Didn't one of the Grummans catch on fire too? IIRC 3591 had a fire that led to it being out of service for a while (Since returned to service at LGA).

3 hours ago, Lawrence St said:

I'm never riding CNG buses again

IIRC it was the CNG tank at LGA that exploded. Riding CNG buses is perfectly safe...

[Lil 57]

8 hours ago, Orion6025 said:

4000 SI NG was reported as catching fire on facebook recently I think

4125 cought on fire on the S79 back in August.

[Lil 57]

I guess they changed their mind about 2882 staying on the S89. As of now 2882 is on the SIM5.

[Lil 57]

8 hours ago, Lil 57 said:

I guess they changed their mind about 2882 staying on the S89. As of now 2882 is on the SIM5.

Heres the image from BusTime earlier today.

[Lil 57]

11 hours ago, Lil 57 said:

4125 cought on fire on the S79 back in August.

Here's a photo I took on Snapchat. (The FDNY was in the background) Date: 8/24/2018

I just learned how to add photos here, that's why I'm adding some pictures to my older posts.

Edited October 30, 2018 by Lil 57

[trife86]

9 hours ago, Lil 57 said:

I guess they changed their mind about 2882 staying on the S89. As of now 2882 is on the SIM5.

A single coach will not stay on the s89, at Yukon it's whatever bus is available at the time, it might always be a coach but not always going to be the same.

 

At Charleston there's a fair amount of coach's assigned to specific operators where they will have the same bus all week.

[Missabassie]

Tonight will surely be a commute from hell for Brooklyn & SI Express riders,,,, One of those NYPD Explorers rear-ended another car on the FDR.

Edited October 30, 2018 by Missabassie

[Missabassie]

On 10/29/2018 at 5:55 PM, Lawrence St said:

Out of curiosity, how many buses have caught fire?

I think it was 6853 caught fire on the Van Wyck some years ago....

[Via Garibaldi 8]

3 hours ago, trife86 said:

A single coach will not stay on the s89, at Yukon it's whatever bus is available at the time, it might always be a coach but not always going to be the same.

 

At Charleston there's a fair amount of coach's assigned to specific operators where they will have the same bus all week.

I know one thing... Those express buses are being DESTROYED on Staten Island. I’ve been watching express bus service very closely since I started the Express Bus Advocacy Group, and my meeting is just about finalized with the  for next week. We’re going to be talking about why there’s such a scramble to make service out of Staten Island and Ulmer Park. Ulmer Park is a mess right now. Spoke with Senator Golden last week about it at his office. He’s looking into it. Meanwhile on Staten Island, I’ve seen various express buses trashed and the outside has cracks all over the place.  Buses breaking down in the middle of rush hour. These are buses from 2015!! Ridiculous... If they were being maintained at all, this wouldn’t be happening.

[Jordan Ayinde]

55 minutes ago, Via Garibaldi 8 said:

I know one thing... Those express buses are being DESTROYED on Staten Island. I’ve been watching express bus service very closely since I started the Express Bus Advocacy Group, and my meeting is just about finalized with the  for next week. We’re going to be talking about why there’s such a scramble to make service out of Staten Island and Ulmer Park. Ulmer Park is a mess right now. Spoke with Senator Golden last week about it at his office. He’s looking into it. Meanwhile on Staten Island, I’ve seen various express buses trashed and the outside has cracks all over the place.  Buses breaking down in the middle of rush hour. These are buses from 2015!! Ridiculous... If they were being maintained at all, this wouldn’t be happening.

To be fair, SI's express network is trying to do for the island what the subways do for the other boroughs. I can't speak for UP, as it should be a pretty easy operation with only 4 routes, but SI runs their buses to the ground considering the volume of service during the week.

[Via Garibaldi 8]

9 minutes ago, Jordan Ayinde said:

To be fair, SI's express network is trying to do for the island what the subways do for the other boroughs. I can't speak for UP, as it should be a pretty easy operation with only 4 routes, but SI runs their buses to the ground considering the volume of service during the week.

That’s no excuse. Before they had an excuse because of them having so few depots and a lack of room to maintain the fleet properly. Now they have Charleston. Meredith is not a full depot, but it still takes some of the strain off, and the fact that these buses are mainly three years old (I’m aware of some of the older fleet), what I’ve been seeing points directly to these buses not being cared for at all. If riders are finding trash on the first buses out of the depot in the morning, then clearly no one is cleaning them and keeping them up. That also doesn’t excuse the passengers being slobs, but still.

The express buses I ride on are over 10 years old and look in MUCH better shape. Why? Because the buses are cleaned and maintained.

Edited October 31, 2018 by Via Garibaldi 8

[XcelsiorBoii4888]

34 minutes ago, Via Garibaldi 8 said:

That’s no excuse. Before they had an excuse because of them having so few depots and a lack of room to maintain the fleet properly. Now they have Charleston. Meredith is not a full depot, but it still takes some of the strain off, and the fact that these buses are mainly three years old (I’m aware of some of the older fleet), what I’ve been seeing points directly to these buses not being cared for at all. If riders are finding trash on the first buses out of the depot in the morning, then clearly no one is cleaning them and keeping them up. That also doesn’t excuse the passengers being slobs, but still.

The express buses I ride on are over 10 years old and look in MUCH better shape. Why? Because the buses are cleaned and maintained.

Them buses are going THROUGH it. A couple of drivers I know said the same. The engines of the buses are straining more now with all the overcrowding and having all that excess weight on them 24/7. Also with a lot of routes coming back to the depots late, buses literally don't have time to get maintained during the day because its literally drop off, someone else picks up. And the little time they do have, they're filling the buses up with gas or checking for serious operational maintenance issues. The only time those buses really catch a break now is overnight and there's little people working overnight. And obviously everyone working is becoming overwhelmed at the high demand so its taking longer than normal to fix everything up and that's leading to the more dirtier buses, buses breaking down more often, etc. 

At this rate I feel the new express bus order will be for SI and the rest of the city will get the hand me downs from S.I because the express system on Staten Island is on HIGH demand. 

[Via Garibaldi 8]

7 hours ago, XcelsiorBoii4888 said:

Them buses are going THROUGH it. A couple of drivers I know said the same. The engines of the buses are straining more now with all the overcrowding and having all that excess weight on them 24/7. Also with a lot of routes coming back to the depots late, buses literally don't have time to get maintained during the day because its literally drop off, someone else picks up. And the little time they do have, they're filling the buses up with gas or checking for serious operational maintenance issues. The only time those buses really catch a break now is overnight and there's little people working overnight. And obviously everyone working is becoming overwhelmed at the high demand so its taking longer than normal to fix everything up and that's leading to the more dirtier buses, buses breaking down more often, etc. 

At this rate I feel the new express bus order will be for SI and the rest of the city will get the hand me downs from S.I because the express system on Staten Island is on HIGH demand. 

I don’t have control over what goes where, but I have been pressing my contacts to ensure that all express bus riders receive buses that are tolerable and they have been pulling buses from service.  How quickly they are fixed is another story, but what I can’t tolerate is buses with things that are clearly broken being sent into service over and over again. It’s just exacerbating the problem of buses making service. Out of Ulmer Park it’s the same thing. Buses with broken AC going into service over and over and passengers sending me photos of it with signs showing things being broken. Overcrowding daily due to drivers being unable to get buses that actually work, so yes, as far as I’m concerned, given the complaints I’ve been receiving, we need new express buses sooner rather than later and that contract needs to be finalized. Baisley Park at least now has been running coach buses, but they had hybrids in service regularly until I made a stink and asked that they pull them. Riders were promised coach buses years ago and the advocacy group will be watching closely to see that this promise is kept.

I’m also due to meet soon with some other folks to look into auditing express bus service. I think the whole operation needs to be looked at. On-time performance across the system is a joke. Missing scheduled buses regularly. We need to see what is going on. Is maintenance slacking? Why are there so many scheduled trips missing across the system (not just Staten Island)?

I’ve been amazed at how many trips we’ve logged at all hours across the system where buses are 20-30 minutes late or more, at times when traffic should not be a problem.

 

Edited October 31, 2018 by Via Garibaldi 8

[Coney Island Av]

Quick question: how many D60HFs in the 5500-series are still unrenumbered? 

I'm asking this because I want to catch at least one of them before they get renumbered.